Experts say this year's flu season could be earlier and more intense, thanks to a new variant and low vaccination rates.
So far, around 23% of Michiganders have received the influenza vaccine for the 2025-26 season. Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state’s chief medical executive, said she isn’t surprised that vaccination rates are low, especially because numbers have dropped each year since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
“And so it is consistent with that trend, but it's still very disappointing, especially in a year like this when we're expecting a severe flu season,” Bagdasarian said.
The dominant version of the flu that's spreading right now is a variant of influenza H3N2, called subclade K. The variant has caused an earlier, more intense flu season in the UK.
“We’re expecting the same pattern to emerge in Michigan,” Bagdasarian said.
Hospitalization rates from influenza have not gone “up too significantly,” Bagdasarian said. But she’s keeping an eye on those numbers to keep emergency departments and hospitals from filling up.
Older people and young children are at risk of severe complications from COVID, flu and RSV, Bagdasarian said.
The state’s physicians still recommend flu, COVID and RSV vaccinations for children, but Bagdasarian notes there’s more skepticism among the public as some recommendations from the federal government have shifted.
She recommends individuals go to their medical practitioners for guidance. Bagdasarian is concerned that the “federal changes are eroding trust in a time in which trust had already been on the decline,” she said.
Now, Bagdasarian said it’s up to individual states “to take a bigger role in providing that really correct information and in answering people's questions.”
“(It’s) making sure that we are listening, that we are answering their questions, and that we understand that people have real questions and they have real doubts right now that we have to address,” Bagdasarian said. “I think that's the most important next step to building back that trust.”
